Trevor Writes

“The Earth is alive, everyone,” boasts an omniscient narrator against the backdrop of the Earth in orbit, spinning, then abruptly coming to a stop, as the narrator continues on about the fragility of all life on this planet, and how civilization could so easily come to an end in this uncaring universe. A second later it cuts to a distinguished gentleman – perhaps a scientist – standing in front of the backdrop we saw a moment ago; only now we see it is merely a prop. The man laughs over the ridiculousness of the preceding warning, saying it is akin to something out of a comic book, while he goes on about the many unknowns surrounding human life's origins. We cut again to a television screen, revealing this lecture to merely be a TV program, as we cut once again to a different distinguished gentleman, watching this program while sitting in a chair, arms folded. He falls back in his chair, scoffing, and flips a coin onto the palm of his hand. Thus begins King Kong vs. Godzilla...

Villain. Reluctant anti-hero. Beloved hero. The variables change. What remains constant: an indestructible force of nature. His appearance can send an entire nation weeping for their lives, or cheering from the sidelines, and every combination in between. Godzilla (called Gojira in his native country) is a Japanese icon, a reminder of a horrifying past, and one of cinema's most fascinating and enduring film franchises. Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, with writing and story contributions by Takeo Murata and Shigeru Kayama, the original Godzilla production took recognizable form when Toho Studios hired Ishiro Honda to finalize the script and direct the picture. There have been countless monster movies made before and after Godzilla, but perhaps none as devastatingly tied to the real world. This 50-meter-tall sorta-reptilian sorta-dinosaur resembling monster (designed by Teizo Toshimitsu, Akira Watanabe and Eiji Tsuburaya) is a physical manifestation of humanity's contempt ...